Perilous Light (The Afterglow Trilogy #2)(25)
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy

“You’ll come back with me, then? Maybe if we can get my mom, we can find a way to stop Blake.” My excitement intensified.

“I want to stay by your side more than anything, but I will be of greater use if I can maintain the guise of supporting Blake.” Calvin turned me around so I faced him.

My heart dropped. “I don’t want to be separated from you again.” I could feel the tears starting, and didn’t try to fight them. I didn’t care if Calvin saw how much the thought of leaving him hurt. I had done enough pretending over the past year to last a lifetime.

“I will not be far from you, Charlotte. Even if I wanted to, I could not allow you to be so far away again. We have barely been reunited, but I can feel our bond growing. It is going to hurt even more when we separate this time.” Calvin’s eyes locked with mine, and I couldn’t have looked away if I tried. His eyes were once again so expressive I could have drowned in them.

“I can’t imagine it hurting any worse. I don’t think I would have made it through this year without my friends and family.” I didn’t want to hurt him, but I wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted him to know everything about me.

“Then I am glad you had them.” He paused for a moment. “All of them.” He watched me intently.

Maybe it was his expression or the oppressive feel of the air between us, but in that pause I realized that he knew about the kiss with James. I must have been right about William.

“It meant nothing, you know. He was just—”

“Shh… I know. I never doubted you. Of course, I still want to hurt James for touching you, but you should feel no guilt. I know that you belong to me.” He shifted nervously, probably because the last time he told me I belonged to him, I freaked out and told him he didn’t own me.

“As you belong to me.” He appeared surprised at my words, but I wasn’t. The year apart had made me realize the intensity of our bond, and that belonging to someone had more meanings than one.

“That I do. I have belonged to you since the first moment we met.” I could see the excitement in his eyes, and it felt good to be the cause of his happiness.

“So what now? Do we really go our separate ways again? I mean, I know it’s not a choice, but—”

“You need to continue your journey to find your mother. You need her help and guidance. I will assist as possible, but I cannot raise suspicion yet.” He paused. “I will not let anything happen to you. I promise I will protect you, even if from a distance. But right now, we enjoy our time together. I need to get you back before anyone in your party realizes that you are gone, but we still have a few hours. I do not plan to waste a minute of it.”

I settled into Calvin’s arms and lost myself in his presence.

Chapter Fourteen

Kevin

It felt as though we had just arrived back at the hotel before we were leaving again. The night disappeared in the blink of an eye, and right after breakfast, we headed out the door. Bry and I were the only ones going, and I kind of wished Samantha, Henry, or Naomi were going, too. Bry seemed like a cool guy, and he helped a lot in the council chambers, but I still didn’t know him enough to want to spend the afternoon with him. When he told me he knew a place where I could get help preparing my speech, I agreed to go with him immediately, but my enthusiasm wavered when I found out we were going to see a tree.

“You are the one who claimed to need help. I am bringing you to the one thing that can help you,” Bry tried to reassure me as we climbed the steep, rocky terrain. The Alak wilds, as Bry called it, weren’t very far from the city limits.

“And talking to a tree is supposed to help me?” I probably sounded insulting, but exhaustion and stress tended to make me act that way. I trusted Bry, but he stretched my patience with the whole tree business.

“I cannot fathom your lack of faith. After all, you are both the brother and son of an Essence.” Bry’s disbelief didn’t help his case.

“What do my mom and sister have to do with a talking tree?”

Bry sighed. “It is not a talking tree; it is a tree that can pass on knowledge. And your family has everything to do with it. You are so connected to the Source, yet you refuse to accept that there are other vessels tied to it.”

“I try not to focus on what Charlotte can actually do, and honestly, my mom is still just my mom to me. Maybe if I see her again, I’ll feel differently.” I hadn’t really thought about the fact that my mom used to be an Essence, and I didn’t particularly want to.

“Keep an open mind. I believe the ancient oak will give you the confidence and strength you need.”

“Strength? Now a tree is going to give me strength?” I started to reassess my trust in Bry. He sounded weirder and weirder.

“Yes. We all know you have physical strength, Kevin, but you need to tap into your inner strength as well.” Bry shook his head in frustration.

We finished the climb in silence, neither of us interested in arguing further. Rounding the crest of the hill, I was shocked by the hulking trunk that stood in front of me. The tree trunk was not only massive, but so tall I had to crane my neck to see even the lowest branches. The only thing that even compared to it was Angel Oak back home outside of Charleston.

“What am I supposed to do?” Looking at the tree, I felt even weirder about talking to it.

“Touch it and open your mind.”

I half expected Bry to call me a Jedi and turn into Yoda. “I thought you said I had to talk to it?”

Bry smirked. “I did. But you did not really expect to talk the way we talk to one another, did you?”

I tentatively reached out and placed my hand on the trunk. Nothing happened, and I turned toward Bry for guidance.

“Open your mind, Kevin.” Bry shook his head as if he thought I was stupid.

I tried again. I placed a hand on the tree, took a deep breath, and… nothing. I started to get frustrated when I was hit by an intense pressure in my head. Flashes of images and thoughts flooded my brain. I couldn’t see anything beyond the nearly overwhelming visions. My momentary fear was replaced by understanding as the pressure subsided. I let go of the tree.

“Did you hear what you needed?”

“I’m supposed to focus on family, focus on Charlotte…”

Bry interrupted, “No need to tell me, Kevin. Only you need to know.”

I shrugged and tried to comb through the new ideas flowing through my head. I wondered if the feeling was similar to how Charlotte felt when she used her abilities. The images and ideas blended into my own thoughts so that by the time we reached the base of the hill, I could no longer separate the foreign thoughts from my own.